DOMINATION 23

[Keegan]

As always, any and all feedback is welcome, but if you're short on time, here are some prompts:

Match of the night:
Segment of the night:
Feud of the night:
Line of the night:

Thanks very much in advance.

[pdbnb]

Match of the night: Val vs Xiang. HOLY CRUISERWEIGHT BOUT, BATMAN!
Segment of the night: Alfie and Tobias eavesdrop on some vampires.
Feud of the night: Darring vs PTA, with not much to choose from.
Line of the night: "And as for Border Control, after we’re done with you. You’ll still be missing a heart, a brain, and balls.” Bravo, Hector.

FINAL THOUGHTS: A very WCW episode, in a bad way. Few matches (though generally good ones) and not much to get excited about. At this point, it seems there's less than a handful of guys carrying the show, and writing for an audience of each other. I would like to see this change, and I echo Keegan's frustration (who, by the way, has no fault in this situation, and is working his butt off to smooth over the cracks.) Let's step it up, people. If you want this place to stick around and grow, time to show it.

PEDRO'S RATING: 7/10, because we don't have bad shows at this point, just sub-par ones. This feels somewhat like a 6.5 , though, as opposed to the usual 7.5 pushing 8...

[Keegan]

I echo a lot of what you said Pedro. My review won't take long when it goes up. Not a show I am particularly happy or proud of, but it does make me determined to make the next one better.

Seems to be a pattern on a 4th dhow of an arc. A special thanks, once again, to Brian, Pedro, Shae, Niko and Hector for writing.

Enjoy your Easter.

[Legend]

I haven't read the show, but I feel Keegan's frustration on a weekly basis, and it now seems to have spread to Pedro. Not a good sign at all. There aren't a lot of places left for old-school text-based e-wrestling. It's a dying hobby. Hopefully, we will find a way out of this constant strain, but if people aren't going to actually do work, collaborate with others, and write matches, then it is what it is.

Kudos to Keegan for sticking it out this long.

BTW - Pedro is the MVP - a constant workhorse. Impressive, my friend.

A final note on my stuff - I know it's not that impressive. I don't do that well writing against myself. I like to work with others, bounce ideas around, and do everything. But I appreciate all the kind words, even if I am not happy with them!

Enjoy your easter. I hope to read the show this weekend!

[Daniel Dream]

Match of the night: Valorie Vitality V Xiang
Segment of the night: 'oo Is That?!
Feud of the night: Sean Darring vs Prime Time Athletes
Line of the night: "And as for Border Control, after we’re done with you. You’ll still be missing a heart, a brain, and balls." (Cheating because I wrote it but like, Pedro told me he liked it too so it counts, and plus I should to get to like what I wrote too. Lol.)

Wrestling Is Dead: Ooh, we're finally getting more about Shane Watkins, who's currently MIA. I've been wanting to have Daniel Dream compete against Shane Watkins so I'm interested to see when Shane makes an appearance in GLOBAL

Visiting Hours (Week Two): I like Coach Monroe's interaction with the nurse.

Improving The Metrics: Kerry is my favorite manager character in GLOBAL currently and I know what Pedro is foreshadowing.

Challenge Accepted...Kind Of: Jimmy Classic also mentions the Tag Team Championships again, lol. Sean Darring and The Prime Time Athletes are also a good feud that's been going on recently.

I Know What You Did At Last Laugh - 2: Ray Young has an interest in Jerry David, it seems.

Masked Maniac W/ El Principe V Greg Matthews W/ Damon Somner: Masked Maniac goes for two urgent pins at the start of the match. Greg Matthews wins quickly in a match that was short enough to catch me by surprise.

I'm Just - 1: I feel the Kenergy.

Yellow Brick Road: My promo with Jeff. I feel I had to step up my writing game and I even referenced Pedro’s Wicked Witch promo. Hopefully I did a good job stepping up.

I Know What You Did at Last Laugh - 3: A toast to Jerry David.

True Colors: Ooh, Alex Reyn's words hitting a nerve with Jerry David.

Gemini V Jerry David: After a short burst of offense by Gemini, just as quickly Jerry David wins.

You're Not Fit To Wear The Mask: Masked Maniac (rightfully) gets berated for his performance in the ring tonight.

'oo Is That?!: My favorite segment so far.

Valorie Vitality V Xiang: Valorie has a hot start. Valorie shows determination with a bloody nose in the crossface. Xiang counters a move with a rolling kneebar. The two competitors go counter for counter. Match of the night so far with a beautiful Sweet Chin Remix.

Respect Between Veterans: A nice segment.

Main Event: The Rich Family V The Best Of British: I like Kerry’s pre-match promo. A good tag team match.

[Keegan]

Thanks very much, guys.

Mine to come before the end of the week, and I need to work backwards and review everything else, too.

[Alex Reyn]

Wrestling is dead
Not much to say here. It's mostly just re-iterating a story from our Episode 0 (Which should honestly go on the Show History)

VISITING HOURS (WEEK TWO)
It has been said before that one of the many problems of a serialized TV show is that you cannot miss an episode, for if you do, you will be lost on the story.

This is a philosophy that I categorically reject, and this segment is actually the reason for why.

Now, I can have some idea of what's going on, but I don't know the details. I don't know exactly what's going on. I know that Trouble Roxx was attacked. I can guess that it was probably Miranda's crew who did it, but I didn't see it happen.

This, however, does not make me feel that I am confused and therefore disinterested. Rather, it makes me want to go back and see this for myself.

A good serialized series gives people interest in learning more, in filling in the gaps in their knowledge, and this did that here. More specifically, this segment continues to carry the strength of Pedro's writing in that he is very good at bringing humanity to his stories. His characters always feel like well-rounded people and not merely wrestling gimmicks.

IMPROVING THEIR METRICS
For the second segment of the night, I'm going to echo what I said before, a lot of the similar strengths in the writing being, again, a Pedro segment, but more of a focus this time on intrigue and mystery here, where the previous segment was about the consequences of the past. This segment is more about building anticipation towards the future.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED...KIND OF
What's interesting about this segment, and honestly this feud in general, is that this is the first feud we've had that is a 100% Brian Bell feud.

It is two of Bell's characters fighting each other. It's Brian Bell versus Brian Bell! with the winner facing Brian Bell at Magnum Opus! No matter who wins, everybody wins! Except for the people who aren't Brian Bell. And do those people really matter? No!

But, joking aside, this segment... It's solid... But it's also solid.

It's a very standard: "The babyface challenges the heel, and the heel makes an excuse to postpone the challenge." Segment that does what it needs to do, but doesn't have a lot of meat on it. And I think it just goes to show that we always work better when we've got other people to bounce ideas and bounce things off of, because this segment was solid, but definitely not the strongest that I have seen from Daring or Classic.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID AT LAST LAUGH - 2
We got a flashback segment from Keegan's characters. Because of how short it is, and because it's more like a teaser, (we don't know fully where it's going, but I'm starting to piece it together), there's not much I can comment on it at the moment. So, interesting for now, I'll see where it goes.

MASKED MANIAC W/ EL PRINCIPE v GREG MATTHEWS W/DAMON SOMNER
Alright, so, for The Masked Maniac vs. Greg Matthews, the match wasn't bad, but I don't think I can really rate it any higher than ...Eh?

I think a couple of things held it back: First of all, while the story of the Maniac grappling with his new doubts and insecurities is interesting, I don't think that story was given enough time to develop. I think the match ended before that story could really be told.

And, honestly, I felt the lack of crowd reaction dragged the match down as well. There are definitely people who are overboard with their crowd reaction.

"The roof blows off a building for the smallest move that a guy who's basically at the rookie level does!!!"

But, there's also the problem of underdoing it. This underdid it. This had basically no crowd reaction whatsoever, and I think that hurt the match. So, not bad enough to be bad, but still not very good.

I'M JUST - 1
It's at this point that I start noticing a pattern with this show, and not for the better, because this is yet another segment that I feel merely fulfills its purpose, and little more than that.

And honestly, this deep in the build of the pay-per-view, that's really not a good thing.

Having a few things like that, that's fine. Having what I think is about halfway through the show being like that...? This is not the best show.

And unfortunately, there's little I can say about this segment other than simply recounting what happened.

I did like how it ended. I did like that rather than show us the beatdown that we all know happened, it simply fades to black and leaves us to the imagination of just what the hell this guy did to the hecklers. So, a neat touch there, and I am appreciative of that.

YELLOW BRICK ROAD
One of the better segments on this show, and actually one of the stronger Rutherford Promos.

I'll admit though, something about the Rutherford Promos have always felt off, and this is where I have to apologise, because I struggle to articulate both externally and in my head, what about them doesn't quite click with me.

It's a weird thing where technically everything they're doing is right, and yet the impact just isn't what it should be, and I struggle to figure out exactly why.

It's like the notes are there, but the music is ever so slightly off. The dialogue speaks with gravitas, with forcefulness, and with confidence, and yet it doesn't feel confident, it doesn't feel forceful or anything. It feels lacking in impact, it feels unsure of itself.

I wish I were more of a linguist to articulate why. Maybe someone more well-versed in that could be inform me. I may even ask a friend what they think, but again, something about it has always felt off to me.

That being said, for this one, I am being more complimentary than I am critical, and this is one of the stronger segments on the show, and I don't mean to damn it with faint praise by saying that.

I KNOW WHAT YOU DID AT LAST LAUGH - 3
We still don't know exactly what happened between Adam Hatt and Ray Young. It's clear that something bad is going to happen, and it's also very clear that it is using the friendly, playful nature of the segment to lower our defenses before something bad happens, it's an interesting segment, though again, not a payoff here, just building anticipation. More interesting than the previous one, but I don't think it's all fully come together.

YOU'RE NOT FIT TO WEAR THE MASK
Another segment I feel I have very little to say on besides simply recounting what happened.

RESPECT BETWEEN VETERANS
All right. So, we have the return of Freddie Rich. And again, I unfortunately missed several shows, so to see Freddie Rich back was a pleasant surprise. I think the segment does a good job of getting across the respect between them. So, it's an enjoyable segment on that front.

MAIN EVENT: THE RICH FAMILY V THE BEST OF BRITISH

Our main event started off okay and got a lot better towards the end.

At first, while the action was decent, I felt it was very much being overshadowed by the commentary. I felt that the commentary was honestly doing more of the job of building up a match between Allie Rees and Kerry. And, uh, no. Please, no. Do not.

That being said, once the story started focusing on the conflict with Donnie Rich and how Declan was reluctant to tag him in until he was absolutely forced to, which cost them the match, then it started focusing more on the match itself, and the match became a lot better as a result.

So, yeah. It started off okay, became good towards the end, and the focus should always be more on the match itself, unless you want the match to feel more like a throwaway, a filler.

PHASE TWO
A surprisingly ominous note. We now know that, despite how playful the Adam/Ray segments were, something bad DID happen to Adam, but we still don't know WHAT.

So, overall thoughts on the show:

Match of the Night, I am giving it to the main event. However, I will admit that that is more of a damning with faint praise.

For the Segment of the Night, I will give it to the opening segment with the hospital. It does very good job of making everyone feel human, giving me interest in the story more, and even making me want to know what happened leading up to this.

Feud of the Night. I'm actually going to have to skip this one, give it a N/A", because I don't really think any feud was built up all that well tonight. I guess if you had to force me to think, the Primetime Athletes versus Sean Darring feud was given the most attention.

So, my final grade for this show, I'm giving it a 4 out of 10. A very lackluster and "Meh" show.